THIS WEEKEND
A wide selection of hit movies coupled with a holiday and scorching temperatures
across much of the country helped generate explosive box office fireworks
in what should be one of the biggest weekends in history during the Independence
Day session. Showing a true sign of the megaplex era, four pictures played
in over 3,000 theaters each and seven films managed to collect over $10M
over the Friday-to-Monday period.

That All-American desperado
Will Smith captured another box office title over the Independence Day
weekend with his latest big-budget summer popcorn film Wild
Wild West which lassoed $36.4M over the
Friday-to-Monday holiday weekend, according to final
studio figures. Strolling into 3,342 theaters, the Warner Bros. western
averaged a strong $10,902 per corral and has gathered up $49.7M since its
launch on Wednesday. Over the traditional Friday-to-Sunday portion of the
weekend, the critically-panned movie took in $27.7M. The $100M+ summer
event film played strongest with moviegoers under the age of 18, according
to studio distribution head Dan Fellman, reflecting the immense popularity
of its headlining star among that age group. Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek,
and Kenneth Branagh also star.

But despite its number
one opening, Wild Wild West did
not deliver the firepower that many had expected. The Barry Sonnenfeld
picture boasted a commercially potent combination of the starpower of Will
Smith, expensive special effects, a mammoth advertising campaign, the top-selling
soundtrack in the nation, a cast that popped up on every talk show and
magazine cover around, a long holiday weekend, and a record-breaking amount
of theaters. But the weekend gross still fell below the levels of recent
Fourth of July weekend blockbusters like Armageddon
($36.1M), Men in Black
($51.1M), and Independence Day
($50.2M) as well as many of this summer's other event films like Big
Daddy, Tarzan,
and Austin Powers.

Should Wild
Wild West have sold more tickets this
weekend? Did negative reviews encourage moviegoers to spend their dollars
elsewhere? Maybe. Many movies with awful reviews, like The
Waterboy, have gone on to gross tons of
cash because regular consumers still enjoy them. Will Smith's latest film
did have to compete against six other films that attracted over $10M of
business a piece over the holiday session. But word-of-mouth will be the
critical key to the film's success or failure.

Adam Sandler slipped
one notch to second with his latest comedy Big
Daddy which picked up another $26.8M,
according to estimates, in its sophomore frame. Comparing Friday-to-Sunday
periods, the Sony release dropped a disturbing 52% in the face of intense
new competition. Still, Big Daddy
has grossed an amazing $90.5M in only 11 days of North American release
and looks headed for the $150-160M range. That would give Sandler's last
two films a combined domestic gross of over $300M making him one of the
biggest draws at the box office today.

Swinging into third
place over the Fourth of July holiday weekend was Disney's Tarzan
with $19.3M. The lord of the jungle has gathered a mighty $111.1M in just
18 days of release and crossed the magic $100M mark on Saturday, its 16th
day of national play. Audiences are truly enjoying the animated family
film as it is destined to become one of the highest-grossing Disney toons
ever. A final domestic cume of $170-180M could result.

Those foul-mouthed
lads from South Park cursed
their way to a fourth place debut with $14.8M over the Friday-to-Monday
holiday period. Moviegoers were respecting their authority in 2,128 theaters
giving the animated Paramount release a strong $6,943 average per site.
The full-length feature version of the hit cartoon series finds the young
boys sneaking into an R-rated profanity-filled movie which in turn expands
their vocabulary, much to their parents dismay, who go on to wage a war
against Canada, the country who produced the picture. With its foul language
and sex-related humor, the $21M South Park
film was a true test for movie theater
operators who have recently pledged to strictly enforce the MPAA's rules
for not letting unaccompanied children under the age of 17 into R-rated
films.

But South
Park prevailed and grossed an impressive
$23.1M since its Wednesday opening. Despite the crude jokes, critics have
been loving the film. And Paramount has proved once again how it can take
an animated television property from its Viacom family and turn it into
a profitable feature film. In 1996, they enjoyed a $63M gross from Beavis
and Butthead Do America and last November
the studio released The Rugrats Movie
which went on to gross over $100M. As far as South
Park's long-term success is concerned,
movies with built-in cult audiences tend to exhaust most of their business
in the first two weeks and then fade fast. Time will tell whether or not
South Park
will be any different.

Solving murder mysteries
in fifth place was John Travolta with $14.2M gross for his crime thriller
The General's Daughter.
Despite negative reviews, the Paramount title has been a steady performer
at the box office each week due in part to the lack of mature adult offerings
in the marketplace. After 18 days, The
General's Daughter has tallied $67.4M
and is Travolta's biggest hit since Face/Off.
Look for the domestic tally to flirt with nine digits.

Falling out of the
top five in its seventh weekend was the mighty Star
Wars Episode I which grossed $13.3M raising
its cume to a mammoth $373.2M. The Phantom
Menace still ranks as the fourth highest-grossing
picture in box office history behind Titanic,
the original Star Wars
(including rereleases), and E.T.
George Lucas' long-awaited prequel should surpass the total of Steven Spielberg's
alien by the end of the month. However, after six weeks of ultrawide release
and a lock on many of North America's biggest and best auditoriums, Episode
I lost 495 theaters over the Independence
Day weekend and is now playing in 2,631 sites.

With a dozen more wide
releases set to launch this month, The
Phantom Menace will continue to be pushed
off more screens in the weeks ahead. A final domestic gross of $420-440M
looks likely. At the end of its seventh weekend of domestic play, Episode
I is running 21% ahead of Titanic's
$308.1M at the same point. However, the James Cameron smash grossed $25.9M
in its seventh weekend (a Friday-to-Sunday nonholiday frame) or more than
twice the prequel's comparable weekend gross. Meanwhile, the new Star
Wars saga set sales records around the
world in Brazil, South Korea, and Chile last weekend, opened in Hong Kong
and Mexico this weekend, and attacks Japan, Israel, and Argentina next
weekend.

Dr. Evil and Mini-Me
were busy planning their diabolical schemes in seventh place with Austin
Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me which
collected $12.1M. After 25 days of release, New Line Cinema's biggest hit
ever has amassed a groovy $171.4M and still has its "la-zer"
aimed at the $190-200M region. However, it is depreciating faster than
most other summer films and a crowded July schedule will not help matters
any. Mike Myers has now grossed more with the Austin
Powers sequel than with his two Wayne's
World films combined.

Spike Lee's latest
effort, the dramatic thriller Summer of
Sam, opened in eighth place with $8M over
the holiday frame and $6M over the Friday-to-Sunday portion. Playing in
1,536 theaters, the Buena Vista release averaged a decent $5,203 per site.
Summer of Sam
chronicles the time during the summer of 1977 when a heat wave and a serial
killer put New York City on its edge. The director's last film, He
Got Game, debuted with $7.6M in May of
last year over a traditional nonholiday weekend. 1992's Malcolm
X still delivered Spike Lee's biggest
opening ever with $9.9M.

At number nine was
Notting Hill with
$5.5M pushing its total to a rosy $98.3M surpassing the $91M of her last
film Stepmom.
Look for the Julia Roberts romantic comedy to cross the $100M threshold
by the end of the week.

Rounding out the top
ten was the Miramax arthouse hit An Ideal
Husband which expanded from 122 to 602
theaters and grossed a splendid $3.6M. That gave the Rupert Everett pic
a solid average of $6,043 per altar. With $5.7M in sales thus far, An
Ideal Husband, which also stars Cate Blanchett,
Julianne Moore, and Minnie Driver is quickly becoming a runaway limited
release summer hit like Tea With Mussolini.

Overall, the best holds
were generated by mature adult films like The
General's Daughter, Notting
Hill, and An
Ideal Husband while younger-skewing megacomedies
like Austin Powers
and Big Daddy
suffered the steepest dropoffs.

The three freshmen
titles pushed a trio of holdovers out of the top ten over the weekend.
Universal's blockbuster hit The Mummy
grossed $1.3M in its ninth weekend pushing its total to a spooky $148.3M.
The $80M Brendan Fraser-starrer should be able to finish its domestic run
with around $155M and has already begun conquering various overseas territories
recently with about $83M in international ticket sales including strong
performances in Germany, Japan, and Australia. Buena Vista's $57M thriller
Instinct
has reached $32.2M domestically and should finish with roughly $35M.

After an incredible
thirteen weeks in the top ten, the spring sci-fi smash The
Matrix has seen its cume rise to $166.8M.
Directed by The Wachowski Brothers, the Warner Bros. action thriller was
produced for $60M and has already grossed close to $300M worldwide with
much more international coin to come.

Miramax enjoyed solid
performances from its other arthouse pics. Lovers
on the Bridge debuted in two theaters
with $29,679 giving it a strong average of $14,840 per site. My
Son the Fanatic, starring Om Puri and
Rachel Griffiths, expanded to 14 locations grossing $84,955 or a solid
average of $6,068 in its sophomore frame.

Compared to projections,
Wild Wild West
did not have the firepower to reach my $45M forecast. South
Park and Summer
of Sam both were close to my Friday-to-Sunday
predictions of $14M and $7M respectively.

The top ten films over
the four-day holiday weekend grossed an incredible $154.1M which was up
57% from last year's three-day frame when Armageddon
opened with $36.1M, and up 35% from 1997 when Men
in Black debuted on top with $51.1M.

Be sure to check back
on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next
weekend when American Pie
and Arlington Road
debut.

This column is updated three times each week
: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary),
Sunday (post-weekend analysis with
estimates), and Monday night (actuals).
Source : EDI, Exhibitor Relations. Opinions expressed in this column are
those solely of the author.